“George! I found it!”
If you're restoring an old house and you're anything like me, then you know how important the human story of the house is and how much the search for and the discovery of that story adds to the project. With the human story, the house becomes a home.
A while back I pulled up the real Mount Vernon Wikipedia page and saw replicas listed on the page. I told Grace and she added Little Mount Vernon to that list. Not long after that I got a call from a lady who is an architectural historian specializing in... you guessed it. Mount Vernon replicas!! She routinely monitors that Wikipedia page and saw our house had been added to the list. She asked me a few questions and then she said "Well, I'm looking at your house plans!"
Turns out "our" Mount Vernon was based on house plans published in the October 1937 issue of the Ladies Home Journal as "the Journal Mount Vernon"! It only took me 15 minutes to find the issue on eBay and order it!
According to the article, working plans were available for $1.00, and this home can be built in any area of the country for $15,000!
Just close your eyes and imagine Mrs. Emma relaxing in her favorite chair in her old house after a long day, finally able to enjoy the latest issue of the LHJ that had just arrived earlier that day. She flips the next page and sees it! I can actually picture what happened next. Her eyes lit up and her heart skipped a beat. And she said "George! I found it!"
Now that's the human story! And it makes my eyes light up and my heart skip a beat!